North St. Louis

Leaders Argue Over $37 Million in COVID Relief to North St. Louis | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis | St. Louis News and Events

admin BB82, Brandon Bosley, Christine Ingrassia, Lewis Reed, missouri, MO events, MO news, News, North St. Louis, Riverfront Times, Sharon Tyus, St. Louis, St. Louis events, St. Louis news 0 Comments April 21, 2022

click to enlarge

DOYLE MURPHY

St. Louis City Hall.

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen advanced a bill Thursday that will allocate several million dollars of funding to north St. Louis if passed after a final vote next week.

The bill, Board Bill 82, would allow for $37 million of federal COVID-19 relief funds to be used as grants for small businesses, nonprofits and community enhancement projects within 11 commercial corridors in north St. Louis. These corridors all lie within census tracts where at least half of households earn incomes significantly less than those in surrounding areas.

A vote for advancement of the bill followed a long, contentious discussion between aldermen.

Ward 6 representative Christine Ingrassia said she supported the investment into north St. Louis, but was “concerned about the process” by which the bill was amended, citing a lack of open and public negotiation.

Sharon Tyus, alderwoman for Ward 1, quickly rebutted.

“No change of major money or anything like that happened,” Tyus said, adding that the Board of Estimate and Apportionment was very involved. “I don’t believe it was done behind closed doors. It was just a process thing.”

Ward 3 representative Brandon Bosley criticized questions people have asked about investments for St. Louis’ north side. He passionately spoke for over 15 minutes on the decades of disinvestment in north St. Louis and the struggles Black residents have had in St. Louis’ history to get things done under primarily white governance.

“We’ve been tearing down everything for all these years and ain’t nobody said nothing about what we’re tearing down… But when we want to build, there’s a question?” Bosley asks.

Bosley later added, “Ya’ll been telling us one more [year] for 400 years. Ya’ll been telling us one more meeting, one more analytical data session, one more meeting to get the community’s input. Every time the community tell ya’ll what we want, you don’t implement… You are not the representatives of these areas — we are,” Bosley said to aldermen who don’t represent north St. Louis.

The board then advanced the bill with 26 votes in favor. Aldermen will have a final vote on the bill during a meeting Monday at City Hall.

In a statement, Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed said the board “has worked tirelessly” for north St. Louis residents to get the funding they deserve “in a quick and expedient manner.”

“Our residents deserve the safety, stability and access to opportunities these funds will provide,” Reed said.

Courses

St. Louis Mayor’s State of the City Address Calls for More Work to Be Done | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis | St. Louis News and Events

admin American Rescue Plan, Missouri news, MO events, MO news, News, North St. Louis, Riverfront Times, St. Louis, St. Louis events, St. Louis news, State of the City Address, Tishaura Jones 0 Comments April 20, 2022

click to enlarge

Monica Obradovic

Mayor Tishaura Jones gave her first inaugural State of the City address.

After a year in office, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones sees a lot of work that still needs to be done.

The mayor gave her first State of the City address at Harris Stowe University Tuesday night, just a day before her one-year anniversary of taking office. Jones made several proposals in her speech, including a commitment to funnel $150 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to north St. Louis in an effort to “reverse decades of disinvestment in our neighborhoods.”

How this money would be spent was not specified, but it’s “just a start,” according to the mayor.

“With the resources St. Louis has at our disposal, we have the opportunity to create change St. Louisans can both see and feel on their streets,” Jones said.

Some of those resources include federal grants and the $500 million settlement St. Louis city and other plaintiffs won from a lawsuit over the Ram’s departure.

“I truly believe that St. Louis is on the precipice of change, and that our brightest days lie ahead if we invest these resources wisely to make a long-term impact for generations to come,” Jones said.

Jones also proposed paid family leave and a 3 percent raise for all city employees to make St. Louis more competitive in job hiring. Additionally, Jones says the city will restart alleyway recycling collection in May. The service came to a halt last year due to a staff shortage.

In a continuation of her effort to “reimagine public safety,” Jones also proposed the creation of the Mayor’s Office of Violence Prevention. This new office would address public safety beyond policing and enforcement, since “poverty is the father of crime,” Jones said.

After the mayor’s address, Nick Dunne, a spokesman for Jones, told the RFT the crime prevention office would be a collaboration between “everyone who touches community violence,” from health leaders to police. It’s unclear where the office will be located.

“We believe that public safety is also public health, there’s a lot of overlap in between,” Dunne says. “The creation of this office would help streamline a lot of the resources we’ve created in order to approach public safety and community violence from a public-health approach.”

Jones concluded her speech by quoting words from her “forever junior.” The mayor did not attribute these words to Cora Faith Walker, the former policy director for the St. Louis county executive, who died in March. But a version of the statement remains pinned to the top of Walker’s Twitter page.

“Is it good? Is it kind? Is it useful? Is it necessary? If not, feel free to keep it to yourself. We’ve got a whole lot of work to do for St. Louis,” Jones said.